Gil Eanes Rounds Cape Bojador
Cape Bojador on the West African coast had long been regarded as the southern limit of navigation—a zone of fearsome currents, shoals, and mythological sea monsters that no Christian ship had passed. In 1434 Henry the Navigator's squire Gil Eanes finally sailed past the cape, finding the feared barrier to be navigational rather than supernatural. The psychological significance was immense: the passage demonstrated that the African coast could be explored systematically, opening two decades of accelerating Portuguese expansion southward. Henry subsequently funded at least fifteen voyages further down the coast before his death in 1460.
- Year: 1434 CE
- Category: Political
